Love In Bloom Designs
A little rain and some sun means the trees in our new neighborhood suddenly look like they’ve been frosted with icing, and the sweet scent of spring blossoms is blowing through the air. Like a lot of neighborhoods across the country, our little urban enclave along Divisadero Street in San Francisco has been undergoing a beautification treatment in the last few months, which means more trees for all. While Divisadero itself has been a little bit bare up until now, the side streets that make up the Lower Haight and Duboce Triangle areas are filled with all sorts of flowering trees already bursting with petals or on the verge of popping.
Flowering trees make great additions to any neighborhood: most attract butterflies, can produce fruit in the summer months, and their flower laden branches look amazing. The smell of plum or acacia blossoms in the air means that spring is officially here (and sadly allergies for many folks!), and even non-fruiting trees, like magnolias, release a lovely fragrance when they go into bloom. We also discovered a great organization while photographing our hood called Friends of the Urban Forest, “a non-profit committed to the belief that trees are a critical element of a livable urban environment”. They work with communities and individuals to get it done…everything from choosing and planting the appropriate tree, obtaining a permit, and after-care. They also offer tree tours of San Francisco and pruning workshops from certified arborists (bad pruning can kill trees and looks pretty terrible).
We’ve been wowed by the variety of flowering trees in this part of the city, a small and sunny spot protected from the fog by Mount Sutro. We’ve found tulip and grandiflora magnolia, pear, plum, crabapple, quince, and several other flowering trees we haven’t yet identified. We have also been getting a variety of beautiful branches at the flower market since January and are dreading the day they go out of season. It’s no wonder we celebrate Lunar New Year by bringing in a few un-bloomed branches indoors, placing them in a vase of water to watch them unfurl their popcorn blossoms; we can’t think of more appropriate imagery to symbolize a new year, a new beginning, and the promise of great things to come.
